The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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HYDE PARK, Tuesday—Yesterday morning it felt really cold in the country and as I had to go to New York City for a few hours, I contemplated a silk dress or a light wool one. I decided on the light wool! When I reached the city I realized what a mistake I had made. The air seemed to be dead and I was much too warm all day.

I can't understand the people who tell me they do not mind being in the city in summer. It seems to me a poor place to live at any time of the year, but worse in summer than at any other time. I will concede that there are things to attract one for brief periods of time, but after I have seen my friends, heard a little music, seen a few plays and enjoyed one or two other sights, I come back to the country with a sigh of relief.

And at this season when the woods are so beautifully green and flowers bloom everywhere and the abundance of the earth is so evident in the fruit on the trees, I can't help feeling that there is more to gain spiritually in enjoying our countrysides.

The other afternoon as I was signing mail with side glances out of my window, and I am afraid my thoughts centered on how quickly I could get out for a swim, Miss Thompson came upstairs to my desk, looking somewhat breathless and said: "Mrs. Roosevelt, Cardinal Spellman is on the porch and he wants to see you."

The Cardinal had dropped in on his way to dedicate a chapel in Peekskill. We had a pleasant chat and I hope the country proved as much of a tonic for him as it always is for me.

I have a letter in my mail today from an individual who tells me he is twelve years old. His spelling would bear out the age, but the handwriting is somewhat more mature. In spite of his youth he has learned the advantages of anonymity, for while he asked me a number of questions, he did not sign his name.

He complains about the "Barton" bill, so he is evidently somewhat inaccurate, and many of his statements are in line with this first inaccuracy and show that he neither knows his facts very well nor has he been trained in proper logic and deduction. I would be glad to give him complete answers to his questions, but it is impossible to do so without either a signature or an address on his letter.

I began my Christmas shopping yesterday. One really can have quite a Christmas spirit about it in the month of August. It is so far away there isn't the least hurry and one can enjoy the choice of each article. If I have to be at work in the United Nations General Assembly from September 20th on, however, it is as well to do all the personal things I can now!

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1949, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

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Geographic
  • Hyde Park (Dutchess County, N.Y., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 24, 1949

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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  • Binker, Mary Jo (Associate Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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